Join LaRissa Rogers, The Arts Center in Orange’s current Artist in Residence, for the unveiling of her site-specific installation ‘tending to life’ at the Imani Works Farmashrammonastery. Building off of previous installations by Rogers throughout Central Virginia, this work asks the viewer to examine the question, “Who and what survives?”
Rogers turns to the fertile soil for answers, a process inspired by her question about survival as well as the writings of contemporary Black luminaries including Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, and Kevin Quashie. Regarding soil as the literal foundation of the rich history that surrounds us through the cultivation of food and medicinal plants, a repository for deeply human stories of trauma and displacement, and the fountainhead of future regeneration and possibility, ‘tending to life’ invites visitors to meditate on the power of place and the role of certain flora and fauna in the self-liberation and healing of Black and enslaved people during their escape for freedom and within their own communities post-Reconstruction. In her artistic practice, she simultaneously engages violence and care as co-constructive forces that structure Black life, and explores if it is possible to ever fully sever the body from the conditions of its environment. Through materials such as soil, Rogers grapples with the entanglements of belonging and fugitivity, beauty and horror, life and death, opacity and transparency, care and resistance. Through her work, soil becomes an archive and vessel for collective memory and reimagining, while temporality provides pathways for de-colonial futures and alternative possibilities for Black people to exist.
During her residency with The Arts Center, LaRissa Rogers has met with community members from diverse backgrounds to discuss their family histories and connections to the region; explored her own family’s history and archives; and worked with three young women to create the sculptural forms that make up the installation in the meadow at Imani Works.
The installation unveiling is free and all are welcome! Come learn about the plants that have shaped our histories and the artist’s vision for alternative monuments that promote community growth.
GETTING
THERE
Click here to see the exact location on Google Maps.
If using GPS, the nearest address is 11530 Porter Rd, Orange, VA 22960 (the Orange County Landfill).
SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS FROM THE TOWN OF ORANGE: Take VA-20 N (Constituition Hwy) towards the Orange County Airport. Turn right onto State Rte 625 (Porter Rd). The entrance to the meadow is on the left just before the entrance to the Orange County Landfill. Please park in front of the fence as directed by the signs.
ABOUT
THE ARTIST
LaRissa Rogers was raised in Ruckersville, VA. She holds an MFA in New Genres from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a BFA in Painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rogers has exhibited and performed internationally as institutions including Frieze Seoul (Korea), Documenta 15 (Germany), Fields Projects (NY), Super Dakota (Brussels), M+B Gallery (CA), 1708 Gallery (VA), Black Ground (Colombia), LACE (CA), Grand Central Art Center (CA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (VA) among others. She received the Visual Arts fellowship at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2022), the Black Artists and Designers Guild Creative Futures Grant (2022), and The Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship (2023-2024). Rogers attended the BEMIS Center of Contemporary Art Residency (2022), Black Spatial Relics Residency (2022), and SOMA (2019), among others. She is the co-founder of the alternative monument and community gathering space "Operations of Care" located in Charlottesville, VA and will install a public sculpture with the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, 2024.
For more information about the artist, visit her website.
ABOUT
IMANI WORKS
Imani Works is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Public Charity for the promotion of Human Rights through advocacy and education because:
1. Human Rights are to be enjoyed by all
2. Advocacy is easier than you think
3. Sustainable living is simple, healthy, and fun